Strength Through Professional Society Communities and Continuing Education

Everyone wants to and needs to be part of something bigger and to feel productive and be a recognized as a valuable contributor to an important organization.

When you wake up each morning, is it with a smile on your face and excitement, energy, and enthusiasm for the day and your projects? 

We are part of communities -- from the colleges and universities that we, as academics, teach and conduct research at to the companies that the practitioners and leaders in our profession in industries as varied as healthcare to transportation and logistics to financial services and high tech and consulting (to name just a few) contribute significantly to.

We are also, many of us, members of professional societies, which provide us with essential communities and from which we gain strength in so many ways.

With possible challenges in our immediate academic and corporate organizations due to continuing change, economic pressures, fluctuating perspectives in terms of  administration, and even our own values and dreams, professional societies can provide sustenance and support for our entire professional lives.

In addition to the camaraderie and networking opportunities, professional societies provide avenues for continuing education and personal and professional growth.

INFORMS, as the leading association for professional in analytics, operations research and management science, for example, has a plethora of communities that one can be part of, at different stages of one's careers:

From student chapters at various universities:

     End of the semester party of the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter

to INFORMS regional chapters:

Trip with some of my students to the INFORMS Boston Chapter Meeting, Burlington, MA, November 23, 2010 - Link to my presentation


to societies within INFORMS:

Transportation & Logistics Society of INFORMS -- several Robert Herman Lifetime Achievement Award recipients

to fora, such as WORMS (Women in Operations Research and the Management Sciences):
 

Various WORMS activities at the Annual INFORMS Meetings

one receives continuing education in many forms -- information and knowledge from conversations with colleagues and from lectures and talks with additional resources provided by INFORMS such as podcasts and now even INFORMS TV!

And, of course, we gain and learn so much through the wonderful conferences:

from regional ones:

2011 Northeast INFORMS Regional Conference
UMass Amherst, May 6-7, 2011

to the annual national ones, which serve as reunions for many of us, as well as international ones, which take us to exotic locales:

ALIO-INFORMS Joint International Meeting
Buenos Aires, Argentina, June 2010

Moreover, through INFORMS membership, one can find out about new jobs and opportunities -- terrific for students and for those seeking greener pastures or just new challenges.


Finally, with INFORMS' new CAP (Certified Analytics Professional) program you can gain valuable new credentialing. And, one of the first to take the CAP exam, Dr. Irv Lustig of IBM, explains the benefits of this exam in his interview with Barry List, the Communications Director of INFORMS in the video below.




Irv, by the way, was an undergraduate at Brown University, when I was a PhD student there, and I was his TA for Professor Stella Dafermos' OR course (she was my advisor). Needless to say, Irv was very smart and went on to Stanford to get his PhD in OR with Professor George Dantzig, as his advisor.

And, in closure, I emphasize that learning and gaining strength from our professional society communities can also be a lot of fun!

The Technical Major Payoff and Females Deserve Equal Pay -- Isenberg Faculty Speak Out in the News

I really like being a faculty member at the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst (although, I admit, that being on sabbatical here in Sweden is simply fabulous).

I especially like the fact that my colleagues tend to "think outside of the box" and to speak out on important issues.

We are a very interdisciplinary bunch and that is one of the biggest strengths (and also, sometimes, one of the challenges) of  a business school -- bringing different perspectives and points of view to important problems.

I just returned from a brilliant seminar here at the School of Business, Economics, and Law at the University of Gothenburg  that was given by Dr. Jessica Coria. She described her research on environmental economics, assimilative capacity of the environment, traffic, and congestion pricing that was done with another economist, a biologist, and a chemist. I had met Dr, Coria when I was here this past June.

After returning to my office, in an inspired state from the seminar and discussion, I sat down to check messages and news (given the 6 hour time difference, the eastern part of the US is just starting to get to work).

Lo and behold, The Boston Globe has a terrific article on how different college majors yield different lifetime earnings, and it singled out engineering and math and computer science. The article noted a recent US Census Bureau report that analyzed earnings in terms of degree and occupation.

What also impressed me about the article was that two of my Isenberg School of Management colleagues were quoted in it: Professor Robert Nakosteen (who also travels to Sweden often) and Professor Tony Butterfield, the Director of our great PhD program.

In the article, Professor Nakosteen states that “Lifetime earnings can tell you something pretty dramatic about the major you are in. And you also have to do something that you like.”

The article also highlighted another report with some troubling stats on the disparity of women's salaries vis a vis men's in that "Women’s earnings were below men’s in every category of occupations requiring college degrees. A male computer programmer or statistician earned a median salary of $84,000, while a woman in the same job earned about $16,000 less, or $68,000 a year."

Professor Butterfield, in response,  noted that “Pay should be based on qualifications, experience, and above all, performance." “Women have been in the pipeline long enough in virtually all professions. The pay gap should be gone by now.”

WORMS (Women in Operations Research and the Management Sciences), a forum of INFORMS that I care a lot about, has started collecting additional data and studies regarding female academics and issues in STEM fields. This is certainly a very timely endeavor and something that we all need to pay attention to.

Women in Operations Research and the Management Sciences (WORMS) Events at the INFORMS Phoenix Conference

Conferences are wonderful venues at which we learn a lot from the presentations, reconnect with colleagues, make new friends, attend special business meetings and award ceremonies, and come back regenerated, reinvigorated, and refreshed.

When it comes to INFORMS (Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences), the annual conference is always a fabulous meeting place and this year it is taking place in Phoenix, Arizona, October 14-17, 2012.

One of my favorite FORA  is WORMS (Women in Operations Research and the Management Sciences) and its activities at the annual conference should not be missed, from the WORMS luncheon to various specially-organized panels.

We today received a message from the WORMS President, Dr. Esma Gel, summarizing all the WORMS activities in Phoenix and, for purposes of communications, and generating more interest, I am reprinting the message below.

Sunday, October 14, 16:30-18:00 

Panel: Advice on Promotion to Full from Associate Professor

Chair: Mary Beth Kurz, Clemson University

Panelists: Julie Higle, University of South California; Aleda Roth, Clemson University, Susan Sanchez, Naval Postgraduate School; Beril Toktay, Georgia Institute of Technology

Panelists in different stages of careers at various institutions will share their experiences and observations, and give advice on the transition from associate to full professor.

Monday, October 15, 16:30-18:00 

Session: Best of WORMS

Chair: Banafsheh Behzad, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne, and Eva Regnier, Naval Postgraduate School

Three Women in OR/MS will present their highly influential work published in INFORMS Journals in the past year. 

WORMS Business Meeting, Monday, 18:15-19:15

Join us for our business meeting!!! This is an excellent opportunity to voice your ideas, become involved with the Forum, and shape WORMS’ future!!!

Refreshments will be served for a social gathering before the “business” part of the meeting starts.

WORMS Luncheon

Tuesday, 12:30-13:30

Celebrate women professionals in OR/MS and enjoy lively conversation by attending our annual luncheon, where we present our Award for the Advancement of Women in OR/MS! Please make sure to buy your ticket while registering ($18 member/nonmember and $8 student) since we will not have any tickets at the door this year!!!

Tuesday, October 16, 13:30-15:00 

Panel: Discussion on Women in Engineering: Publishing, Recruitment, and Retention

Chair: Andrea Hupman, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Laura McLay, Virginia Commonwealth University

Panelists: L. Robin Keller, Mary Anderson-Rowland and Robyn McKay, Arizona State, and Susan Albin, Rutgers University 

Enjoy!

The WORMS Luncheon -- Always a Great Event at the Annual INFORMS Conference

As colleges and universities gear up for the new academic year, it is also a time to begin planning for conferencing.

The Annual INFORMS Conference is always a highlight -- bringing together operations researchers and management scientists from around the globe to exchange their latest research, to reconnect, learn from one another, and also to network and to see old friends and to make new ones.

This year the INFORMS Conference will take place in Phoenix, Arizona, October 14-17, 2012.

In addition to the various society business meetings, which I also enjoy, one of the BEST events is the Women in Operations Research and the Management Sciences (WORMS) luncheon. The meal is always delicious and at this luncheon the WORMS Award is given. I posted some photos from an earlier WORMS luncheon here.

This year,  tickets will no longer be sold at the lunch so please plan accordingly, since we don't want disappointed colleagues!

We expect room for 200 at the lunch.

Below is the email that was just circulated to the WORMS community which I am reposting for communication purposes.

Dear WORMS Members,

I am writing to invite you to the annual WORMS luncheon that will be held on Tuesday, October 16, from 12:30-1:30 at the Hyatt Hotel in Phoenix, AZ. This will be another great networking and celebration event for women in OR/MS and other supporters of diversity in the profession.

Luncheon tickets are $18 ($8 for students). You can purchase tickets when you register for the INFORMS conference at http://meetings2.informs.org/phoenix2012/register.html, or during on-site registration when you arrive in Phoenix (if tickets last). Different from the earlier years, we will not be able to sell any tickets at the door, and only those who can present tickets will be admitted to the luncheon. Traditionally, WORMS luncheons have been very popular and previous years' luncheons consistently sold out, so please purchase your tickets early!

During the luncheon, we will be presenting the WORMS award for the Advancement of Women in OR/MS. We have been fortunate to secure sponsorships from various institutions, and we will be hosting a table with our sponsors' recruitment materials and job ads, which we believe will be an excellent opportunity for networking and visibility.

We are looking forward to seeing you in Phoenix! Please join us at the WORMS luncheon!

Best Regards,
Ozgun


Ozgun C. Demirag, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Management
Sam and Irene Black School of Business
Penn State Erie
814-898-6717
ozc1@psu.edu

Looking Forward to All the WORMS Activities at INFORMS Charlotte!

The President of WORMS (Women in Operations Research and the Management Sciences) had emailed me whether or not I had received the latest announcement about the newsletter and upcoming activities at the INFORMS Charlotte meeting and I had responded that I had not but since I had spoken at McGill last Friday only to return to what is being called the biggest snowstorm on record for October with power outages that left over 3 million people in the dark, I figured that perhaps it was an Internet or related problem. (By the way, some of our neighbors as well as colleagues in Amherst and surrounding communities still do not have electric power and have been without electricity since last Saturday night and this is Wednesday).

Further inquiries revealed that others also had not received the message so it was forwarded today and is reposted below.

WORMS activities are some of my favorites at the annual INFORMS meetings from the WORMS lunch to the panels. These forums serve as great get-together and networking events as well.

Dear WORMS members,

The latest WORMS newsletter is available here.

We're looking forward to seeing many of you at the INFORMS annual meeting in Charlotte in two weeks. WORMS has several great events happening, including our biggest event - the Tuesday luncheon - two panels of thoughtful and high-profile panelists and the first-ever "Best Of" session featuring influential publications by women in OR/MS. In chronological order:

Best of WORMS – Sunday November 13, 1:30 PM – 3 PM

Amy Ward, Dorothée Honhon and Waverly Ding present their highly influential papers published in INFORMS journals in 2010. References including coauthors available by link.

Panel Discussion: Can we do anything about women dropping out? – Sunday November 13, 4:30 PM – 6:00PM

Panelists: Mor Armony, Cynthia Barnhart, Cheryl Gaimon, Ann Marucheck, and Linda Whitaker

In 1979 women made up less than 1% of full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty in engineering. More than thirty years later, how much has this percentage increased?

Panel Discussion: Leaders offer professional advice to women and men – Monday November 14, 8:00 AM – 9:30 AM

Panelists: Mark Daskin, Radhika Kulkarni, Anna Nagurney, Les Servi, and Eric Wolman

Business Meeting – Monday November 14, 6:15 PM – 7:15 PM

Meeting in the Convention Center, Room 209A, we will vote on amendments to the by-laws. Refreshments will be served to sustain a quorum. Please bring your energy and ideas for WORMS in 2012.

Luncheon – Tuesday November 15, 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM

Held in the Westin, Grand C, the luncheon will include reports on WORMS activities in 2011 and plans for 2012, as well as the presentation of the 2011 WORMS Award for the Advancement of Women in OR/MS. The biggest WORMS event of the year, the luncheon is almost sold out, so buy your tickets if you haven't already ($15, $8 for students).

Please remember to renew your WORMS membership for 2011 and for 2012. Many of us (including me) tend to renew just in time for the annual meeting – over 3/4 of the way through the year. Starting in 2012, non-members will be removed from the WORMS mailing list early in the year, so in order to be able to post to the list and continue receiving e-mails from WORMS, you'll need to be a current member. There are (at least) three ways to renew:

1. Renew online at http://www.informs.org/Membership/Renew-Your-Membership and, check “Forum for Women in OR/MS (WORMS)” under Fora.
2. Renew by phone by calling INFORMS member services (800-446-3676). Old-fashioned, but fast and easy, you can state specifically what you want to pay for, and have your questions answered on the spot.
3. Renew by mail using the form you will receive by mail or by downloading the form and following the instructions at http://www.informs.org/Community/WORMS/Membership. Even more old-fashioned, but it works!

Best wishes,

Eva

Eva Regnier, Ph.D.

President, WORMS

Associate Professor • Naval Postgraduate School

1 University Circle • Monterey, CA 93943-5219

phone: 1 (831) 656-2912 • fax: 1 (831) 656-2595

Women in Operations Research and the Management Sciences Keynotes at INFORMS

I'd like to thank Professors Alice Smith of Auburn University and Candi Yano of UC Berkeley for sharing their wisdom at the WORMS keynote session at the recent INFORMS Conference in Austin, Texas. Special thanks to Professor Sadan Kulturel-Konak of Penn State Berks for organizing this session!

Dr. Smith spoke on "Forging International Linkages of Women in OR Academia," whereas Dr. Yano's presentation was on: Lessons from the Lives of Women OR/MS "Veterans."

The photos above were taken at this session.

Both Dr. Smith and Dr. Yano are previous recipients of the WORMS Award.

One highlight from Dr. Smith's presentation -- she answers every request from an international student or scholar who emails her about information and has hosted visitors from Iraq, China, Turkey, and several other countries.

One highlight from Dr. Yano's talk -- the importance of mentors and advocates. One hears a lot about mentors but less about the importance of having advocates, which can clearly smooth one's professional life and advancement at every stage of one's career!

Although there was only one, shall I say, "official," female keynote speaker in the INFORMS conference program this WORMS session added to the portfolio of keynote female speakers!

I guess women have to be creative and proactive in order to get more of their voices heard and the WORMS community is leading the way!

A Truly Terrific Tuesday at INFORMS in Austin, Texas

Today has been a truly terrific Tuesday at the INFORMS conference, which is taking place in Austin, Texas.

I have been taking part in this conference since Sunday that has attracted thousands of operations researchers and management scientists to this fascinating city.

Today, my day began with the Fora/Chapters Awards breakfast at which the INFORMS student chapter awards were given as well as the Judith Liebmane award, and the Moving Spirit award. Joining me at the table were Dr. Yupo Chan, Dr. Les Servi, and several past Presidents of the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter that I serve as the Faculty Advisor of -- Drs. Patrick Qiang, Zugang "Leo" Liu, and Min Yu.

It was terrific to see so many student officers from chapters throughout the US in attendance as well as their Faculty Advisors plus members of the Subdivisions Council. A great breakfast was had by all with a lot of enthusiasm and cameraderie. Congrats to all the winners!

Then I attended a keynote talk by Professor John Birge of the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago. He spoke on risk management and what went wrong in such disasters as the mortgage crisis, the volcanic eruptions in Iceland, and the BP oil disaster. He emphasized incentives and system and mechanism design and how the former, if constructed properly, may have prevented the ramifications and perhaps the occurrence of such catastrophic events. His talk reminded me that in transportation we already are providing incentives for travelers to change their selfish behavior in the form of tolls that enable the system-optimizing solutions to prevail!

The keynote was followed by a wonderful set of presentations by Dr. Alice Smith and Dr. Candi Yano who spoke in a WORMS (Women in Operations Research and the Management Sciences) session. Dr. Smith talked about international collaborations with rich graphics and stories about her personal experiences. Dr. Yano, in turn, had interviewed 6 senior/veteran females in OR/MS to extract their experiences and lessons learned from the trenches. Their talks were fabulous and there was a lot of interesting discussion.

Afterwards, one of my favorite events of an INFORMS conference took place -- the WORMS award luncheon at which Dr. Brenda Dietrich of IBM received the award for 2010. She was also elected an INFORMS Fellow this year. The luncheon of salmon and risotto with vegetables and salad was delicious and was finished off by a multitiered chocolate, mocha torte. Joining me at the table were several former doctoral students of mine from the Isenberg School at UMass Amherst who are now professors and even a former undergrad from UMass Amherst who is now at NSF.

This has been a fabulous conference for seeing so many friends and colleagues.

Tonight is the general reception, which should be another great networking and reconnecting event.

International Collaborations Panel

I am very much looking forward to the ALIO-INFORMS Conference that will take place in Buenos Aires, Argentina, June 6-9, 2010. Besides giving a talk on Sustainable Supply Chain Network Design at the conference and an invited tutorial: Fragile Networks: Identifying Vulnerabilities and Synergies in an Uncertain Age, which is on the theme of my latest book with Professor Patrick Qiang, I will be on a panel: International Collaborations. The panel was organized by Professor Sadan Kulturel of Pennsylvania State University Berks and is sponsored by WORMS (Women in Operations Research and the Management Sciences). Dr. Kulturel has assembled a great group of panelists that I am honored to be included with: Dr. Karla Hoffman of George Mason University, Dr. M. Gulnara Baldoquin of the Higher Polytechnic Institute in Cuba, and Dr. Lorena Pradenas of Concepcion University in Chile. More information on the panelists can be accessed here with a press release from Penn State Berks on this panel available here.

Each panelist will give a 10 minute presentation followed by questions and answers.

My presentation on my personal experiences and reflections on international collaborations is available here (complete with a lot of photos)

I am very much looking forward to this conference and to participating in the panel and discussions and I thank Dr. Sadan Kulturel for organizing this special panel.